Box Office Analysis: Sept. 9

The Musketeer stormed this weekend’s box office, capturing first place with nearly $11 million.

The independently made PG-13 rated action adventure, whose acquisition costs were shared by Universal and Miramax, is being distributed in North America by Universal and in the U.K. by Miramax. The Universal and Miramax presentation is a production from D’Artagnan Productions Ltd., Apollomedia, Q&Q Media and Carousel Picture Company.

Musketeer topped the chart with an ESTIMATED $10.7 million at 2,438 theaters ($4,390 per theater), an energetic showing for the traditionally quiet first weekend after Labor Day and the end of summer.

Driven by Musketeer, ticket sales for key films–those grossing $500,000 or more for the weekend–were approximately $69.8 million, up nearly 29 percent from last year’s post-Labor Day weekend total of $54.1 million.

“We’re pleased,” Universal distribution president Nikki Rocco said Sunday morning. “Strategically, when we made the deal with Miramax as a partner on Musketeer–they’re going to release it in the U.K. and we have North American rights–knowing that we were successful with The Watcher last year on the same weekend we saw an opportunity here believing that Rock Star and Two Can Play That Game were (aimed) at different targets.

“We had a magnificent trailer on Musketeer that made it look very different from all the (other movies about the Musketeers). Taking the opportunity to play this incredible trailer with American Pie 2 gave it a lot of visibility. This is the end result. American Pie 2 has done over $131 million worth of business.”

Focusing on the acquisition of Musketeer, Rocco pointed out, “Universal’s share was $3.75 million. It’s a very profitable thing for us. We were very strategic about how we did it. We wanted to be away from all of the high profile (summer) films. This is the weekend last year that we opened another acquisition, The Watcher, to $9.1 million. It was the number one film and made money for us, grossing (about) $29 million (in domestic theaters).”

Sony’s Screen Gems label opened its R rated urban appeal romantic comedy Two Can Play That Game to a sexy ESTIMATED $8.3 million at 1,297 theaters ($6,400 per theater).

Game‘s average per theater was the highest for any film playing in wide release this weekend.

“A very profitable Screen Gems release. Another low cost, highly focused entertaining release that I think really was handled very nicely by the team at Screen Gems–similar to The Brothers, which came out earlier this year and opened to $10.3 million (the weekend of Mar. 23-25 at 1,378 theaters, averaging $7,477 per theater), but was in a tougher period and dropped off pretty dramatically. This one in the fall, hopefully, will hold on a little bit and end up with similar results. Brothers ended up with about $28 million.”

Blake added that he feels Screen Gems is “doing a very nice job with highly focused pictures that have great appeal to a segment of the audience. And they’re doing a nice job getting the word out to them at a pretty reasonable price.”

Bel-Air Entertainment’s R rated drama Rock Star opened quietly via Warner Bros. in a tie for third place to an ESTIMATED $6.18 million at 2,525 theaters ($2,446 per theater). The film was financed by Bel-Air and is being released by Warners.

“It’s a little disappointing, obviously, but our exits were pretty good,” Warner Bros. Distribution president Dan Fellman said Sunday morning. “It was about 50-50 male-female and primarily 18-35. The one thing that stood out in the exits was that everybody liked a href=”/celebrities/197412/Mark_Wahlberg” >Mark Wahlberg’s performance in the movie. The best markets we had, not surprisingly, were college towns–like Boston was big. We’re hoping to just hang in there through the fall and maybe we won’t take these big drops that everybody’s been taking in the summer.”

MGM’s Jeepers Creepers, the R rated horror film from the studio’s United Artists label, which was first last week, tied for third place in its second week with a less scary ESTIMATED $6.17 million (-53%) at 2,944 theaters (theater count unchanged; $2,095 per theater). Its cume is approximately $24.3 million.

(NOTE: Percentage comparisons indicated today are against the Friday through Sunday portion of the previous weekend, the four day Labor Day weekend.)

Dimension Films’ PG-13 thriller The Others fell one rung to fifth in its fifth week, still showing good legs with an ESTIMATED $6.1 million (-25%) at 2,737 theaters (+21 theaters; $2,228 per theater). The Others, which cost only $17 million to make, has a cume of approximately $67.6 million, heading for $75-80 million in domestic theaters.

New Line Cinema’s PG-13 rated action comedy blockbuster sequel Rush Hour 2 dropped four notches in its sixth week with an okay ESTIMATED $5.85 million (-37%) at 2,546 theaters (-279 theaters; $2,298 per theater). Its cume is approximately $206.1 million, heading for $210-215 million in domestic theaters.

“It’s the highest grossing film in New Line history,” New Line distribution president David Tuckerman said Sunday morning. “It’s the number two picture of the year and of the summer. The little movie that could!”

Asked why the film worked so well, Tuckerman replied, “It’s basically give the public what they want to see and they will come. That’s the bottom line. The movie was funnier than the first. It delivered. And the public wanted to see more of what the first one was–and they got it.”

Universal’s R rated youth appeal comedy hit sequel American Pie 2 slid three pegs to seventh place in its fifth week with a less tempting ESTIMATED $4.74 million (-47%) at 2,777 theaters (-337 theaters; $1,705 per theater). Pie 2, which cost about $30 million to make, has a cume of approximately $131.2 million, heading for $140 million in domestic theaters.

Paramount’s PG-13 comedy Rat Race fell three rungs to eighth place in its fourth week with an unexciting ESTIMATED $4.4 million (-39%) at 2,551 theaters (theater count unchanged; $1,725 per theater). Its cume is approximately $43.2 million.

Buena Vista/Disney’s G rated family comedy hit The Princess Diaries dropped three notches to ninth place in its sixth week with a less royal ESTIMATED $3.4 million (-40%) at 2,410 theaters (-280 theaters; $1,420 per theater). Its cume is approximately $97.1 million, heading for $100 million in domestic theaters.

Rounding out the Top Ten was Lions Gate Films’ controversial R rated high school set violent drama O, down three pegs with a soft ESTIMATED $2.7 million (-53%) at 1,445 theaters (+11 theaters; $1,869 per theater). Its cume is approximately $10.8 million.

“Hardball went very well,” Paramount distribution president Wayne Lewellen said Sunday morning. “It played to 59 percent capacity. The reactions were 59 percent excellent and 37 percent good and very good and 4 percent fair (in Paramount’s exit polls). 96 percent in the Top Two boxes. The audience was a little older, primarily 20-plus with families. So there’s a mix of older-with-families.”

On the expansion front, this weekend saw Fox Searchlight Pictures R rated hit thriller The Deep End go wider in its fifth week with a still encouraging ESTIMATED $0.9 million (-35%) at 401 theaters (+75 theaters; $2,254 per theater). Its cume is approximately $5.8 million.

MGM’s release of United Artists’ R rated youth appeal comedy Ghost World continued to widen in its eighth week with an okay ESTIMATED $0.39 million (-12%) at 91 theaters (+10 theaters; $4,246 per theater). Its cume is approximately $3.7 million.

Miramax’s R rated Apocalypse Now Redux widened in its sixth week with a still promising ESTIMATED $0.29 million (-35%) at 92 theaters (+11 theaters; $3,097 per theater). Its cume is approximately $3.2 million.

On the international front, Universal reported that its domestic blockbuster The Fast and the Furious had its first major international release this weekend in Mexico with a strong ESTIMATED $0.75 million at 237 theaters, putting it number one in the market. Over the next three months Fast will open around the world, including this Friday (Sept. 14) in the U.K. and Sept. 20 in Australia.

Domestically, Fast is winding down its theatrical run after 12 weeks with a cume of $142.5 million.

Universal also said Sunday morning that its international release of Jurassic Park III has now hit $160 million with eight countries yet to open. Domestically, JP III has a cume of $177 million, giving it a worldwide cume to date of about $337 million.

Bridget Jones’s Diary, which Universal and Miramax co-financed, has done about $122 million in its international release via Universal and still has 12 countries to open.

Universal said that in its third weekend in Germany Bridget moved up to first place with a $2.1 million gross that was up 1 percent from the previous weekend and up 43 percent from its opening weekend. Its cume in Germany is now $8.2 million.

In its third weekend in Austria, Bridget moved back to first place, grossing $265,000 at 65 theaters with a cume of $1.3 million.

Bridget opened in Hong Kong this weekend to very strong ticket sales of $238,000 at 24 theaters. Universal said its gross was 155 percent bigger than the opening for Billy Elliot, 55 percent ahead of Shakespeare in Love and 20 percent better than Liar, Liar.

Final top ten list for summer of 2001

Based on their actual cumes through Labor Day (Sept. 3), this summer’s top ten grossing films were:

Key films–those grossing more than $500,000–took in approximately $69.77 million, up about 28.97 per cent from the comparable weekend last year when key films grossed $54.1 million.

This weekend’s key film gross cannot be compared to last weekend of this year, which was a four day holiday weekend.

Last year, Universal’s opening week of The Watcher was first with $9.06 million at 2,742 theaters ($3,305 per theater); and USA Films’ opening week of Nurse Betty was second with $7.15 million at 1,459 theaters ($4,898 per theater). The top two films one year ago grossed $16.2 million. This year, the top two films grossed an ESTIMATED $19.0 million.